The Opelousas courier., 1887-05-28
CHINOOK WIND.
. Phenomenal Aerial Current
OF the Northwest.
Its Sudden Coming a Blessing to Blizzard
Stricken Cattle Ranges.

Hon. Joseph Nimmo, Jr., who has ex-
plorcd the ''arid region" of the interior,
| with the view of writing a book in re-
gard to it, gives the following descrip-
lion of the Chinook Wind: The name
Chinook Wind" is applied to an aerial
current from the great Kuro-siw of the
Pacific Ocean. During the winter
months this current of air occasionally
debouehes over the crest of the Rocky
Mountains into the British Northwestern
Provinces, Montana and Wyoming.
Sometimes it extends far south into Col
orado, but seldom much further east
than the western boundary Of Dakota.
1t is the result of simultaneous low. ba-
rometer east and high barometer west OF
the Rockies. The atmospheric change
which it produces is about as marked as
that which one would experience during
the month Of January in passing from
Quebec to Key West. The coming of
the Chinook Wind is always sudden,
and somewhat phenomenal. In the
cours Of two hours the thermometer
may rise from 45e below
to 45s above zero. Occasionally,
when the snow is deep, and the Chinook
Wind has an extensive range and is long
continued, the waters of the melting
SHOWS pour down in torrents into the
Upper Missouri. The river is broken up
and rises above its banks. But as the
swelling food reaches Dakota, it arrives
at a point beyond which the influence of
the Chinook Wind has not been felt.
Here the ice is from three to four feet
thick, and as solid as q rock. But the
superintendent waters tear the ice from
its fastcnings to the shores, and a ''war
of the elements" cnsues of surprising
grandeur. A gorge is 500 formed,
which increases in height until the great
icc-dam gives way, when the whole mass
moving on, again rips up the solid ice,
which is piled in masses, fifty
to one hundred feet in height, at points
along the bends Of the river, until an
other gorge is formed, in its turn to be
burst asunder by the force of the rising
waters. No railroad bridge, however
strong, could resist the force of one of
these masses of ice.
But the Chinook Wind m always
as o blessing to the far northwestern
cattle ranges. Usually it is the ''break-
up of a blizzard. During these dread
full Arctic blasts the cattle retire to the
couiecs and sheltered valleys. After
they have cropped the grasses which
rear their heads above the snow, and
have exhausted the supply of sage brush,
aud other varieties of the Artemisia
family, the internal source of heat giving
out, the poor brutes are forced to tramp
for life. Gathering in bands, thy list
lessly wander over the vast ranges,
drifting with the bitter blast. Some of
them have their tails frozen, which drop
of, and their legs become Redeemed
with frozen blood. The horns of others
freeze, and in time fall of. The dis
tressed animals below with agony as
they on. Cows which have dropped
late calves, and were in no condition to
Ego into the winter" usually succumb.
One by one, cow and calf and weak
fall by the way, and speedily be-
come the prey of wolves aud bears
and mountain lions, which all the time
have hung upon the TANKS of the re-
herd, waiting for zone who
At such a time the blessed Chinook
Wind arrives. The weary cattle snuff it
afar, and come to o halt. Then, as
warm air envelopes them, they lie
DOWN to q long sic p. But the pangs of
hunger are upon tl.en. As loon as they
ire sufficiently rested they start at
once for the Winter ranges" These
the areas remote from the
which during the long dry sea-
ion of the summer months have tethered
hem in their grazing. But now the
Chinook Wind has formed pools from
!,
he melting SHOWS all over the country,
where they may qucnch their thirst and
Craze where they please. In the abun-
liant pasturage thus opened up to them
hey feed upon the highly nutritious
grasses peculiar to the arid region, and
ire soon Refrigerated. But in the
curse of a few days the wind changes.
In Arctic wave presses back the Chi
look. And now, with well-flled
tonlachs and paunchcs, the herd speed
" seeks shelter, and once more is forced
q undergo the terrible ordeal of
Northwest blizzard.-Frank Lcslie's.
The Religion Of Cinnamon.
The Deopie oil this state If calIod